Caesar's Messiah: The Roman Conspiracy to Invent Jesus:Flavian Signature Edition (23 page)

The following passage is Josephus’ declaration that the Flavian Caesars were the individuals the Jewish prophecies foresaw to hold the mantle of the Christ.  Notice that Josephus’ reference to the “dynasty” of Vespasian is the basis for the Christian concept of the trinity – that is, a “godhead” of three individuals (father, son, and a “terrible spirit” – Vespasian’s other son, Domitian) which contains the Christ foreseen by Jewish Scripture.

What did the most to induce the Jews to start this war, was an ambiguous oracle that was also found in their sacred writings, how, about that time, one from their country should become governor of the habitable earth.

The Jews took this prediction to belong to themselves in particular, and many of the wise men were thereby deceived in their determination. Now this oracle certainly denoted the dynasty of Vespasian, who was appointed emperor in Judea.

Wars of the Jews,
6, 6, 312-313

However what is most important for understanding this typology is simply that in both Josephus and the Gospels a “demoniac from Capernaum” was the first to recognize the “Christ”, and that this occurs following a battle at Japha/Nazareth.

“Thou, O Vespasian, art Caesar and emperor, thou, and this thy son.

“Bind me now still faster, and keep me for thyself, for thou, O Caesar, are not only lord over me, but over the land and the sea, and all mankind …”

Wars of the Jews,
3, 8, 401-402

It needs to be noted that though the Gospels were designed to specifically show that Titus was the “son of Man” whose visitation Jesus predicted, they also represent the divinity of Vespasian, who the Flavian court historians also claimed to be a “Christ” and was represented as “God the father” in the Gospels.

3) Fever at the fishing town of Migdal/Taricheae – the true identity of Mary Magdalene

After his battle on the hill outside Japha, and the demoniac of Capernaum’s proclamation of him as the Christ, Jesus went on to “cure” Simon’s mother-in-law of a “high” fever.

Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon's house. But Simon's wife's mother was sick with a “high” (megale) “fever” (puretos), and they made request of Him concerning her.

So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.

Luke 4:38-39

To recognize the Luke/Josephus connection at this point, it is necessary to solve a puzzle revealing the name of Simon’s mother-in-law. Solving the puzzle shows that Simon’s mother-in-law’s “high” fever was a pun on her real name – “Mary Magdalene”. In other words, the reason that Luke described Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever as “high” was because  – since she was Mary Magdalene – she had not one, but seven demons inside her, per the quote from Luke below.

To digress, it is of interest that Mary’s “seven demons” that were inside her, may be conjectured to be referring to her “daughters”. They were perhaps the six “Marys” mentioned in the Gospels, and the sole Mary in Josephus.  The character with the high fever in the Gospels was placed in the generation prior to Simon’s, so she could allegorically be the “mother” to the seven Marys (rebellious females) who are mentioned in the Gospels and Josephus. It should be noted that the characters are fictional.

As is well known, the word “Magdalene” is based upon the Greek word “Migdal”, meaning “tower,” and is thought to indicate a woman who comes from the town on the Sea of Galilee named “Migdal”.  The town was known by the Jews as “Migdal” or “tower”, because of the high tower in the town (discovered during an excavation of the site) used to smoke fish to preserve them. The pun between Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever and “Magdalene” was created from the fact that the Greek word used to describe Simon’s mother-in-law’s fever as high – “megale” meaning “high” or “towering” – is very close in its Greek spelling to “Migdal”.   The pun is akin to the one used to connect Joseph of “Arimathea” to Joseph “bar Matthias”.

The connection between Mary Magdalene and Simon’s mother-in-law is straightforward, in that one does not need to understand that the authors of the Gospels engaged in puns like “Arimathea”/“bar Matthias” to see it. The author of Luke left a clear path of logic to the identity of Simon’s mother-in-law as Mary Magdalene, by their shared attributes of an exorcism, being ill, and the serving of Jesus, and the conceptual parallel between a “high” fever and a town named “tower”. Notice below that Luke states that Mary Magdalene had been healed of both demonic possession and infirmities, which would have given her a fever. Moreover, since so many of the other women that are associated with Jesus’ ministry were named “Mary” (or “Martha” - Aramaic for Mary), it is consistent to assume that Simon’s mother-in-law was also a “Mary”.

… and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities - Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, 

and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

Luke 8:2-3

Luke also indicated that Simon’s mother-in-law’s “illness” was “demonic possession”, by stating that Jesus “rebuked” the fever, just as he did earlier in the same passage when confronting a demoniac:

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" When the demon had thrown him down before them, he came out of him without having done him any harm.

Luke 4:35

The Roman wordsmiths had a clear objective with their pun on “Migdal”. As noted above, the word “Magdalene” is based upon “Migdal” or tower, which was the name of a fishing town on the Sea of Galilee. According to the Babylonian Talmud (b. Pesah 46b), the Hebrew name for the town was
Migdal Nunaiya
, which means “tower of fish”.

Josephus called the city of Migdal by its Greek – “Taricheae”, which comes from the Greek word “taricheuein”, meaning to smoke or preserve fish. In fact, the smoked fish of Galilee were famous throughout the Roman Empire, and was likely the inspiration for the “fishing for men” metaphor in the Gospels.

To understand the authors’ point, one must recognize that the rebels who were “fished” by Titus came from the Galilean village called both Migdal and Taricheae (Josephus,
Wars of the Jews,
3, 9, 457). So the point of Luke’s pun on “Migdal” is that that the fishing town of Taricheae/Migdal – like “Mary Magdalene” – had individuals with a “high” rebellious fever who were “cured” by Jesus.

Josephus recorded another clue to assist the reader in understanding that the demonic possession of “Mary of Migdal” was the “fever” of Simon’s mother-in-law, by recording that he also had a “fever” at Migdal that accompanied the “demonic possession” he suffered above. The witty point being that, since Josephus had a “demonic fever” while he was rebelling from Rome, he was – in keeping with the logic of the Gospels’ pun – taken to the place where people had a  “demonic fever” – Taricheae/Migdal.

I continued feverish (‘puretos’) that day; and as the physicians directed, I was that night removed to Taricheae.

Life of Flavius Josephus
, 72, 404

But why did the authors go to the trouble of creating the complex megale/Migdal pun? Why did they not call Simon’s mother-in-law by her name, “Mary Magdalene”, or simply create a story that had Jesus visiting Taricheae? The point was to create a linkage to the “fever” at Taricheae/Migdal at this precise point in Luke’s story that was difficult to see. The authors of the Josephus/Gospels typology concluded that it would have been too obvious to start the story of Jesus’ ministry with stories about a battle on a hill near Japha/Nazareth, followed by the naming of the Christ by a demoniac from Capernaum, and then follow these parallels with stories about the curing of the “messianic fever” at Taricheae (Migdal) and one  describing “fishing for men” on the Sea of Galilee. To make the beginning of the parallel sequence more difficult to see, they used different names for the same locations – Nazareth for Japha, Migdal for Taricheae, and hid the names of the demoniac of Capernaum and Simon’s mother-in-law in puzzles. 

Though these beginning links of the typological sequence are difficult to see, this complexity now ends, and many of the next parallels are easy to spot once the pattern that they are part of is recognized. What is really important about the beginning connections, is that they show a geographical pattern between the Gospels and Josephus. Both stories begin in Nazareth/Japha, go on to Capernaum, then to Taricheae/Migdal, and then the Sea of Galilee.

4)
The city that recognized the savior

Jesus then healed an entire town of its “fever” and demonic possession. The townspeople thereby learned that Jesus was the Christ.

When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.

 And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of God!" And He, rebuking [them], did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.

Luke 4:40-41

Within the typological sequence, Josephus recorded that an entire town was healed of its demonic possession of rebelliousness, and learned the identity of the “Savior” or Christ. In the passage, Vespasian is actually called “Soter,” the Greek word for savior or Jesus. Notice that the “Jesus Christ”, Vespasian restored the city to a “quiet” state – like the townspeople in Luke’s passage above who were “not allowed to speak”.

Jesus and his party thought it not safe for them to continue at Tiberias, so they ran away to Taricheae.

The next day Vespasian sent Trajan before, with some horsemen to the citadel  (Tiberias, a city linked to the rebellion of Taricheae by Josephus, Jewish Wars 3, 9, 445), to make trial of the multitude, whether they were all disposed for peace;

and as soon as he knew that the people were of the same mind with the petitioner, he took his army, and went to the city; upon which the citizens opened to him their gates, and met him with acclamations of joy, and called him their savior (‘soter’) and benefactor.

But as the army was a great while in getting in at the gates, they were so narrow, Vespasian commanded the south wall to be broken down, and so made a broad passage for their entrance.

However, he charged them to abstain from rapine and injustice, in order to gratify the king; and on his account spared the rest of the wall, while the king undertook for them that they should continue [faithful to the Romans] for the time to come. And thus did he restore this city to a quiet state, after it had been grievously afflicted by the sedition.

Wars of the Jews
, 3, 9, 457-461

5) The Christ that preached the gospel (euaggelion)

The next parallel in the sequence is also easy to understand. Titus and Jesus both preached the “good news” – a translation of the Greek word “euaggelion”. “Euaggelion” was a technical term of the Imperial Cult indicating the “good news” of a Caesar, particularly a birth or military victory.

And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them;

but He said to them, "I must preach the good news (“euaggelion”) of the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.  

Luke 4:42-43

Titus also preached the “euaggelion” in Galilee. I am at a loss to explain why the following sentence has not been the subject of any interest by scholars, as the “good news” about which Titus informed Vespasian was the same destruction of Galilee that Jesus “predicted”.

Hereupon Titus sent one of his horsemen to his father, and let him know the good news (“euaggelion”) of what he had done.

Wars of the Jews,
3, 10, 503

Readers need only compare the “good news” Titus brought to Vespasian with Jesus’ prediction below, naming the events that would take place when the “Kingdom of God” would come to pass. Such a comparison makes it obvious that the two “sons of God” described the same events. Notice that the secret identity of the “father” who sent Jesus is also made clear.

“Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you. 

"But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

"But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you.

”And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

"He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."